Hands-On: Google Nexus 5

Why no MicroSD?!

This keeps happening with Nexus phones and other flagships, and I DO NOT UNDERSTAND why a premium device would leave off expandable storage. Who wouldn't want storage for MORE photos/videos/music and be able to swap that over to a different device down the line easily?

The Nexus phones are not premium devices and they never have been. They are developer phones targeted at developers. They run pure vanilla android and represent the upper end of the middle of the road as far as the hardware is concerned. They are intended to be the ideal devices for developers, but also solid devices for everyone else. They were never intended to be "premium" devices. With that being said, I don't understand why they don't include a memory card slot either.

After taking a closer look, it does appear that Google is trying to break away from the developer phone moniker. However, I don't know if I'd quite call this a premium phone.It certainly beats the, notably premium, GS IV in a couple ares like processor speed and an available LTE-A radio. However, it falls behind in some other categories like battery size, DLNA, IR sensor, and memory card slot. Also, one review I read already of the Nexus 5's camera presented it as lackluster. But that's one element most premium phones get right. It's certainly a high end device, but I don't know that I feel it's premium. It certainly lacks enough features that I wouldn't consider it for my own device.

Zpike said:It certainly beats the, notably premium, GS IV in a couple ares like processor speed and an available LTE-A radio. However, it falls behind in some other categories like battery size, DLNA, IR sensor, and memory card slot. Also, one review I read already of the Nexus 5's camera presented it as lackluster.

Battery size is the same as the the HTC One, and not much smaller then the S4 plus the snapdragon 800 processor use less battery for most aplication

DLNA, IR sensor, while great gadgets, %80-%90 of of smartphone owners who have these features dont use them

SD cards are slower and less reliable then built in memory, the real downside about not having a memory card is with andriod once you...(continues)

>>Battery size is the same as the the HTC One, and not much smaller then the S4

Those devices launched when? And the Nexus 5 launched when? I would expect a premium device that launched several months behind other premium devices to have a superior battery.

>>plus the snapdragon 800 processor use less battery for most aplication

I'm pretty sure that's case when compared to previous Snapdragon lines. But the 600 (in the GS4) and the 800 (in the Nexus 5) were announced by Qualcomm at the same time.The 800 is the higher performance processor, and the announcement I read compared it to the last iteration of processors, but not directly to the 600. I would imagine that the extra horsepower comes with a higher cost in power consumption. ...(continues)

You are right I dont really push my phones to the limit anymore I use to be that guy. What I look for in a premium isn't gadgets that other devices dont have, I look for a device that does what every other device can do but better.

i wont consider DNLA or IRBlaster a requirement for a premium device tell more people start demanding them(DNLA was a requirement for premium devices back when the galaxy line first came out but not much of a demand anymore) the sad thing is this might not happen intell Apple puts these features in a iphone, thats not the way it should be. The only hardware feature android has been able to kick off and become a standard that apple doesnt have is NFC not even a huge demand for it not many people use it even once...(continues)

I wouldn't buy an Android device without any of those features. And a host of others. There are more people like me than you think, and demand for the kind of devices I want is also higher than you think. If that wasn't so there would have never been a Note 2, much less a Note 3, or the LG, HTC and Sony devices that now want to compete in that category. Apple hasn't been the driving force in the Smartphone market for a couple years now. And their time at the front of the pack was only 2 or 3 years to begin with. Their day in the sun is over.

But here are some other industry standards that started on Android- multitasking, drop down notifications, wireless syncing, and over the air updates. I guess we don't need Apple to keep technology mo...(continues)

If you actually read what i posted you would have seen where i stated HARDWARE. I have also stated this several times Andriod needs Apple, and Apple needs Andriod. With out one the other wouldnt be where its at today.

Its not that there are more people that want these features then I think, I said only about %10 of smartphone users want these features so out of about 150million smartphones in the US thats still 15million people in the US still wanting those features

Probably because SD cards are unreliable and break easily. I was rooting a guys phone the other day and his SD card became unreadable. Then if you look up Galaxy and SD cards you'll see tons break down. No SD cards for me thanks. They suck.

That has nothing to do with phones, or phone manufacturers. That has to do with the SD card manufacturer, and the quality of their process.

As a rule of thumb - when you buy anything that has any kind of Flash memory, or any memory cards, Format them Three (3) times before you use them. I have purchased SD cards that have memory access errors pop up on the 3rd format. That's how you know they are no good.